State Comptroller slams gov’t for Israel’s AI lag

After a seven-month audit, and after waiting on his desk for eight months for the results before they were published, the State Comptroller yesterday afternoon identified a series of failures that led the State of Israel to fall behind in all important international measures of performance in the field of artificial intelligence. Intelligence (AI). Behind the miserable state of management of this economic sector that will dominate every aspect of people’s lives in the coming years lies the low priority assigned to it in the government’s agenda, lack of funding, unprofessional management, lack of control and surplus of resources. Political bodies were distributed among many government ministries. The State Comptroller’s report largely illustrates the way strategic matters have been handled with this generation of Israeli governments.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman unleashed his criticism of the government’s management of artificial intelligence at a controversial time: on the eve of the formation of an AI task force in the Prime Minister’s Office reporting to its Director General Yossi Sheli, a function that currently exists in the Israel Innovation Authority and the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology. The manner in which the task force was formed without the participation of senior staff at the Israel Innovation Authority and the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, who have already formulated and will implement several strategic programs with a budget of one billion shekels, raises public suspicion among officials that the Prime Minister’s Office is seeking to seize powers and budgets. It is currently returning to professional bodies.

Years of neglect and lack of funding

Senior officials in the technology industry are concerned that the Prime Minister wants to set up a new artificial intelligence team to brand himself as a promoter of a hot technology field, and set it up within a ministry that has struggled to form other departments in the past. Such as those for the rehabilitation of northern Israel and the Gaza border area; The National Security Council, which has been criticized for its lack of influence over the defense establishment and has also been the subject of several investigations; Regulatory Authority; and alternative fuel management. In contrast, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Accountant General’s Office in the Finance Ministry believe that the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, the Israel Innovation Authority and the National Infrastructure Forum, which are handling the matter, did not do so. They have proven their competence in managing it, and therefore coordination of work in this area should be lifted from them.

In any case, the results speak for themselves: years of neglect and lack of funding have seen Israel slip in the major AI rankings. For example, in the Oxford Government AI Readiness Index, an annual assessment of the readiness of more than 190 countries to integrate AI into public services, Israel fell from 20th place in 2022 to 30th place by the end of 2023. Israel ranks between Saudi Arabia and Turkey . As for the Czech Republic, countries weaker in technology, such as Malaysia, Spain, and Luxembourg, ranked much higher than it. In the Global Media Turtle AI Index, the Global Innovation Index, and the AIPRM Public Policy Index in this area, Israel fell significantly. In the AIPRM ranking, for example, Israel ranks 20th between Peru and Estonia, and is the only country among the top 30 that is rated as lacking a national AI strategy.

Criticism is directed at several entities, among them the Israel Innovation Authority, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, the National Infrastructure Forum, and the National Security Council, but changes in government, low priorities, and amateur management of strategic issues appear to be the factors that led to the failure. As Engelman says: “There is no justification for changes in government that cause the halt of a program that has nothing to do with any political dispute and that aims to move Israel forward in a global revolution that will become more powerful in the world.” The coming years,” he writes. “Israel does not have a long-term national strategy for artificial intelligence. “In this case, it is no wonder that we have fallen in the international rankings.”

Things that went wrong in Netanyahu’s governments

The big challenge in coordinating an issue as complex as AI is its many facets, the infrastructure required, the many ministries involved, and therefore the large budget required. The government has a task of a kind to which it is not accustomed: coordinating long-term policy aspects of national physical infrastructure, regulation and legislation, and assistance to industry and academic institutions. The Prime Minister’s team gives the cybersecurity task force as an example, but it has a specific mission of protecting national infrastructures such as the Israel Electric Corporation and Mekorot. Besides, the Cybersecurity Task Force was created at the right time when the cybersecurity industry started to grow, and not in a situation like today where AI has become an established reality and when another government body is dealing with it with a budget of NIS 1 billion approved by the same Prime Minister. In addition, this field has been stagnant for years, only coming to life in November 2022, two years ago, when ChatGPT was launched.

According to the State Comptroller, with the exception of the Lapid-Bennett government for the period 2021-2022, things did not go well in the government under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu. To begin with, the State Comptroller says, there is no single government body charged with leading a national artificial intelligence program, despite what was agreed between Netanyahu and the National Security Council in 2019 and despite the fact that the government assigned the ministry in 2022. Innovation, Science and Technology with preparation like this Program. According to the State Comptroller, after the formation of the current Netanyahu government, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology did not act as the previous government decided, and the program was not actually implemented. “The Ministry was limited to specific topics in the field of AI, and did not lead progress on it at the national level. The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology was not a coordinated government entity with overall responsibility, charged with formulating and leading a national programme, compiling budgets, monitoring implementation and progress of the programme, and supervising attic.

The State Comptroller basically says that the government approved a budget worth one billion shekels to promote artificial intelligence in the period 2022-2027 without approving a general national program. “The national program launched by the then Minister of Innovation (Orit Farkash-Hacohen, AG) in July 2022 remained a dead letter because it was not implemented after the change of government.”

And so it happened that several projects budgeted for 2022 have not been completed to this day: the supercomputer was delayed until 2024; A linguistic model in Hebrew and Arabic, work on which began only at the end of 2023 at the initiative of the Defense Research and Development Directorate (“MAFAT”), will not be launched before mid-2025; Investing only 40% of the NIS 550 million of the NIS 1 billion spending budget by 2023. (The Israel Innovation Authority claims this is an error, that the program started with a one-year delay, and that the full amount will be invested by the end of this year); And the failure to accommodate researchers by the Planning and Budget Committee of the Higher Education Council and to provide scholarships amounting to only 5% of its goal, which are the two items that the Israeli Innovation Authority decided to turn into breakthrough scientific studies due to the lack of demand for scholarships. In addition, the regulation is not developed according to European standards, but it seems that the National Infrastructure Forum wants to wait with the legislation so as not to discourage innovation, and in general prefers the legislative model practiced in Australia, and wait and see how legislation in this area develops in the states. United.

In response, the National Infrastructure Forum said in a statement on behalf of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, the Planning and Budget Committee of the Higher Education Council, the Defense Research and Development Directorate, and the Ministry of Finance: “We feel that most of the conclusions contained in the State Comptroller’s report do not reflect the real situation,” Although all the actions and operations carried out in the last few years within the framework of the National Artificial Intelligence Program have been submitted to the State Controller, it is not clear that the facts have been expressed in his conclusions, as Israel is constantly ranked in the top ten In the world’s leading intelligence classification artificial, and our situation is considered excellent compared to that of other countries.

“We believe that the current program, with the current management structure, and the combination of participants, with the extensive investment of government resources, creates a stable and strong foundation for performance in this area. We are committed to maintaining Israel’s position as a world leader in artificial intelligence, and to continuing to promote excellence in research and development.” ,Advanced infrastructure, and implementation in the technology industry and in government.

“It is important to point out important steps such as the signing of the first international treaty in this field and other steps that were taken this year despite the war, along with the fact that thousands of technology companies are active in Israel that are applying artificial intelligence in Israel. In a group of These areas are the main reasons for Israel’s high position in the global race.

Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on November 13, 2024.

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